Is this the one where they build a vessel of “unobtanium”, enter the oozing mantle, and bore to the core?
Very cool – I had no idea such a hole existed. My only concern is that since the hole “defies conventional tectonic plate theories” it’s just a matter of time until we hear something from the religious right along the lines of “See, scientists can’t explain a giant hole in the earth. Clearly, all of geology is a crock and the Earth can’t possibly be more than 6,000 yrs old.” sigh.
I think that this could be the one where a huge swiss-cheese-like giant fish monster emerges, and terrified crowds scream: “Holey Mackerel!”
Maybe the creationists will say that the mantle in the hole is the drain plug where all the flood waters went.
They’re slighly hyping this, I think – it’s not so much a ‘hole’ as ‘stuff (mantle rocks) on the surface which is normally beneath something else (oceanic crust)’, and although we’re not really sure why that happens, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a thing. The stories I’ve read are very vague on details, but I’d guess that it’s associated with a fracture zone on the ridge, where the crust is always quite thin anyway.
Chris,
In researching the article I found surprisingly little, published papers or press releases, that gave more information. A diagram would have been nice. My take is similar to yours that it is not hole such much as a bare spot.
This is the best I link found – the map they have is waaaay to large scale to be at all useful, but from what they say it’s a ridge segment close to a fracture zone where spreading seems to have occurred without much magmatism (and hence creation of oceanic crust).
Is this the one where they build a vessel of “unobtanium”, enter the oozing mantle, and bore to the core?
Very cool – I had no idea such a hole existed. My only concern is that since the hole “defies conventional tectonic plate theories” it’s just a matter of time until we hear something from the religious right along the lines of “See, scientists can’t explain a giant hole in the earth. Clearly, all of geology is a crock and the Earth can’t possibly be more than 6,000 yrs old.” sigh.
I think that this could be the one where a huge swiss-cheese-like giant fish monster emerges, and terrified crowds scream: “Holey Mackerel!”
Maybe the creationists will say that the mantle in the hole is the drain plug where all the flood waters went.
They’re slighly hyping this, I think – it’s not so much a ‘hole’ as ‘stuff (mantle rocks) on the surface which is normally beneath something else (oceanic crust)’, and although we’re not really sure why that happens, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a thing. The stories I’ve read are very vague on details, but I’d guess that it’s associated with a fracture zone on the ridge, where the crust is always quite thin anyway.
Chris,
In researching the article I found surprisingly little, published papers or press releases, that gave more information. A diagram would have been nice. My take is similar to yours that it is not hole such much as a bare spot.
This is the best I link found – the map they have is waaaay to large scale to be at all useful, but from what they say it’s a ridge segment close to a fracture zone where spreading seems to have occurred without much magmatism (and hence creation of oceanic crust).